SAIE Lip Liner 101 ingredients (Explained) (2025)

Hydrogenated Jojoba Oil, Limnanthes Alba (Meadowfoam) Seed Oil, Caprylic/​Capric Triglyceride, Mica, Mangifera Indica (Mango) Seed Oil, Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax, Silica, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Copernicia Cerifera (Carnauba) Wax/​Copernicia Cerifera Cera/​Cire De Carnauba, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Tocopherol, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Ascorbyl Palmitate, (May Contain (+/​-)) Titanium Dioxide (Ci 77891), Iron Oxides (Ci 77491, Ci 77492, Ci 77499), Yellow 5 Lake (Ci 19140), Red 6 (Ci 15850)

Abrasive/scrub: Hydrogenated Jojoba Oil

Antioxidant: Ascorbyl Palmitate

Colorant: Mica, (May Contain (+/​-)) Titanium Dioxide (Ci 77891), Iron Oxides (Ci 77491, Ci 77492, Ci 77499), Yellow 5 Lake (Ci 19140), Red 6 (Ci 15850)

Emollient: Hydrogenated Jojoba Oil, Limnanthes Alba (Meadowfoam) Seed Oil, Caprylic/​Capric Triglyceride, Mangifera Indica (Mango) Seed Oil, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea) Butter, Copernicia Cerifera (Carnauba) Wax/​Copernicia Cerifera Cera/​Cire De Carnauba, Simmondsia Chinensis (Jojoba) Seed Oil, Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil

Perfuming: Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax

Viscosity controlling: Euphorbia Cerifera (Candelilla) Wax, Silica

So what the heck is a wax ester and why is that important anyway? Well, to understand what a wax ester is, you first have to know that oils are chemically triglycerides:one glycerin + three fatty acids attached to it. The fatty acids attached to the glycerin vary and thus we have many kinds of oils, but they are alltriglycerides. Mother Nature created triglycerides to be easily hydrolyzed (bebroken down to a glycerin + 3 fatty acid molecules) and oxidized (the fatty acid is broken down into small parts) - this happens basically when we eat fats or oils and our body generates energy from it.

Mother Nature also created wax esters but for a totally different purpose. Chemically, a wax ester is a fatty acid + a fatty alcohol, one long molecule. Wax esters are on the outer surface of several plant leaves to give them environmental protection. 25-30% of human sebum is also wax esters to give uspeople environmental protection.

So being a wax ester results in a couple of unique properties: First, jojoba oil is extremely stable. Like crazy stable. Even if you heat it to 370 C (698 F) for 96 hours, it does notbudge. (Many plant oils tend to go off pretty quickly). If you have some pure jojoba oil at home, you should be fine using it for years.

Second, jojoba oil is the most similar to human sebum (both being wax esters), and the two are completely miscible. Acne.org has this not fully proven theory that thanks to this, jojoba might be able to "trick" the skin into thinking it has already produced enough sebum, so it might have "skin balancing" properties for oily skin.

Third, jojoba oil moisturizes the skin through a unique dual action:on the one hand, it mixes with sebum and forms a thin, non-greasy, semi-occlusive layer; on the other hand, it absorbs into the skin through pores and hair follicles thendiffuses into the intercellular spaces of the outer layer of the skin to make it soft and supple.

On balance, the point is this: in contrast to real plant oils, wax esters were designed by Mother Nature to stay on the surface and forma protective, moisturizing barrier and jojoba oil being a wax ester is uniquely excellent at doing that.

Our intro did get pretty big after all (sorry for that), so let's get to the point finally: sunflower oil - similar to other plant oils - is a great emollient that makes the skin smooth and nice and helps to keep it hydrated. It also protects the surface of the skin and enhances the damaged or irritated skin barrier. Leslie Bauman notes in Cosmetic Dermatology that one application of sunflower oil significantly speeds up the recovery of the skin barrier within an hour and sustains the results 5 hours after using it.

It's also loaded withfatty acids(mostly linoleic (50-74%) and oleic (14-35%)). The unrefined version(be sure to use that on your skin!) is especially high in linoleic acid that is great even for acne-prone skin. Its comedogen index is 0, meaning that it's pretty much an all skin-type oil.

Truth be told, there are many great plant oils and sunflower oil is definitely one of them.

What's the problem?

Firstly, it's stability is only similar to that of pure ascorbic acid (AA), which means it is not really stable. A great study in the Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology compared a bunch of vitamin C derivatives and this derivative was the only one where the study said in terms of stability that it's "similar to AA". Not really that good.

Second, a study that examined the skin absorption of vitamin C found that ascorbyl palmitate did not increase the skin levels of AA. This does not mean thatascorbyl palmitate cannot penetrate the skin (because it can, it's oil soluble and the skin likes to absorb oil soluble things) but this means that it's questionable ifascorbyl palmitate can be converted into pure Vit C in the skin. Even if it can beconverted, the palmitate part of the molecule is more than the half of it, so the efficacy will not be good and we have never seen a serum that contains a decent (and proudly disclosed) amount of AP. We are highly skeptical what effect a tiny amount of AP has in a formula.

Third, another study that wanted to examine the antioxidant properties of AP was surprised to find that even though AP does have nice antioxidant properties;following UVB radiation (the same one that comesfrom the sun) it also promotes lipid peroxidation and cytotoxicity. It was only an in-vitro study meaning that it was done on cellcultures and not on real people, but still, this also does not support the use of AP too much.

The only good thing we can write about Ascorbyl Palmitate is that there is an in-vitro (made in the lab, not on real people) study showing that it might be able toboost collagen production.

Regarding the skin-brightening properties of pure vitaminC, this is another magic property AP does not have, or at least there is no data, not evenin-vitro,about it.

Overall, Ascorbyl Palmitate is our least favorite vitamin C derivative. It is there in lots of products in tiny amounts (honestly, we do not really understand why), however, we do not know about any vitamin C serum featuring AP in high amounts. That is probably no coincidence. If you are into vitamin C, you cantake a look at more promising derivatives here.

Anyway, it doesn't matter if it reflects or absorbs, Titanium Dioxide is a pretty awesome sunscreen agent for two main reasons: it gives a nice broad spectrum coverage and it's highly stable. Its protection is very good between 290 - 350 nm (UVB and UVA II range), and less goodat 350-400 nm (UVA I) range. Regular sized Titanium Dioxide also has a great safetyprofile, it's non-irritating and is pretty much free from any health concerns (like estrogenic effect worries with some chemical filters).

The disadvantage of Titanium Dioxide is that it's not cosmetically elegant, meaning it's a white, "unspreadable" mess. Sunscreens containingTitanium Dioxideare often hard to spread on the skin and they leave a disturbing whitishtint. The cosmetic industry is, of course, really trying to solve this problemand the best solution so far is using nanoparticles. The itsy-bitsy Nano-sized particles improveboth spreadability and reduce the whitish tint a lot, but unfortunately, it also introduces new health concerns.

The main concernwith nanoparticles is that they are so tiny that they are absorbedinto the skin more than we want them (ideally sunscreen should remain on the surface of the skin). Once absorbed they might form unwanted complexes with proteins and they might promote the formation of evil free radicals. But do not panic, these are concerns under investigation. A 2009 review article about the safety of nanoparticles summarizes this, "to date, in-vivo and in-vitro studies have not demonstrated percutaneous penetration of nanosized particles in titanium dioxide and zinc oxide sunscreens". The English translation is, so far it looks like sunscreenswith nanoparticlesdo stay on the surface of the skin where they should be.

All in all,Titanium Dioxide is a famous sunscreen agent and for good reason, it gives broad spectrum UV protection (best at UVB and UVA II), it's highly stable, and it has a good safety profile. It's definitely one of the best UV-filter agents we have today, especially in the US where new-generation Tinosorb filters are not (yet) approved.